I think the suggestion has been noted.Mike has offered a resolution so I think its time to close this topic.kind regards

Frankly i thought that was pretty rude. I wasn't even given an option to respond to all the post.

No one on that thread responded to the problem i suggested that the traffic might be herded away from certain areas such does the discover dhamma forum mostly get frequented by newbies and moderators only. For this reason, i don't want ot spend any time there posting questions. I just don't feel i am likely to get a good discussion going of the issue.

I don't know where the view the busy topics button is either. ie the button that someone suggested using.

This forum is built on a template. Its a flawed template. Nothing much can be done about that but people can manage it so as not to replicate and exacerbate the flaws. When you've hung out a long time on a really well made forum, it can take a while to adjust to any lesser experience. I've had a number of experiences on this model of forum. Its ok. Its not great. The reason i hang about is the content, not the model that's in use.

Someone said the categories are chosen for some specific purpose. I can't remember what was said and i can't check it either whilst i am typing this to provide the quote.

What i have found to be best practice is to have 'forums' (i call them branches and this whole place 'a forum' but i know i am alone in that) is to have as few categories as possible and the distinctions between them should be as sharp as a knife edge. This section for meat cooking, that section for vegetarian cookery. Not this section for new cooks and that section for old cooks. That other section for cooks who only use NIgella Lawsons recipe book and another section for cooks who have kids. I mean that's how the categories in this forum and many others strike me.

My preferences is to have only one forum. That way all threads get maximum traffic.

I can't think of what the subforums are here. Is it the study one. I think that's a good idea because its a whole completely different type of activity.

I wonder why the moderators feel its ok to close a thread. Is it something about being buddhist? You've created a place for people to talk and then you tell them they can't talk about this topic anymore. I can understand if the topic gets unruly or upsetting. Then its a good idea to remove the whole thread or at least the problematic posts but to not let people have their say because you think you've heard all the arguments. Well that's somewhat irksome.

Cilla wrote: My preferences is to have only one forum. That way all threads get maximum traffic.

Thank you for sharingthat with us.

.

++++++++++++++++This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

There is freedom from birth, freedom from becoming, freedom from making, freedom from conditioning. If there were not this freedom from birth, freedom from becoming, freedom from making, freedom from conditioning, then escape from that which is birth, becoming, making, conditioning, would not be known here. -- Ud 80

Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireas na daoine.People live in one another’s shelter.

Cilla wrote:No one on that thread responded to the problem i suggested that the traffic might be herded away from certain areas such does the discover dhamma forum mostly get frequented by newbies and moderators only. For this reason, i don't want ot spend any time there posting questions. I just don't feel i am likely to get a good discussion going of the issue.

The "Discovering Theravada" forum is not for "getting a good discussion going" , the aim is to provide a forum for beginners to ask questions and get answers that are straightforward.That is why it is moderated and why threads that are "discussion" are moved to more suitable places.

A forum for beginners and members of other Buddhist traditions to ask questions about Theravada (The Way of the Elders). Responses require moderator approval before they are visible.

Cilla wrote:I wonder why the moderators feel its ok to close a thread. Is it something about being buddhist? You've created a place for people to talk and then you tell them they can't talk about this topic anymore. I can understand if the topic gets unruly or upsetting. Then its a good idea to remove the whole thread or at least the problematic posts but to not let people have their say because you think you've heard all the arguments. Well that's somewhat irksome.

Sometimes we close threads to indicate that we think that the question has been adequately answered (mostly only on the Discovering Theravada, Suggestion Box, and Study Group forum. Very occasionally we close threads because the arguments are getting out of hand. Generally we prefer to leave threads visible so that if someone has a question they can search to see whether it has been asked before.

Cilla wrote:My preferences is to have only one forum. That way all threads get maximum traffic.

As was pointed out on the other thread, if you read via View Active Topics: search.php?search_id=active_topicsyou see the board as one forum. I think that's how most members read it, unless they are only interested in, say, Pali and Classical Theravada.

---The trouble is that you think you have time------Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe------It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---

Cilla wrote:Frankly i thought that was pretty rude. I wasn't even given an option to respond to all the post.

Where I come from, it is considered rude to complain about moderation by starting a new thread. If you have a problem with moderation, the polite thing to do would be to contact the moderator who closed the thread. In my opinion you were given adequate time to respond to the previous thread — you may want to prolong the discussion, but it is up to the moderators to decide how to organise the forum. They answered your thread, and gave their reasons why they choose to organise the forum the way that they do.

Cilla wrote:Once again it was pointed out yes but not told how to find it.

Cilla wrote:Frankly i thought that was pretty rude. I wasn't even given an option to respond to all the post.

Where I come from, it is considered rude to complain about moderation by starting a new thread. If you have a problem with moderation, the polite thing to do would be to contact the moderator who closed the thread. In my opinion you were given adequate time to respond to the previous thread — you may want to prolong the discussion, but it is up to the moderators to decide how to organise the forum. They answered your thread, and gave their reasons why they choose to organise the forum the way that they do.

Cilla wrote:Once again it was pointed out yes but not told how to find it.

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Well you are entitled to your opinion. But if i think of myself as the customer and you as the salesperson or employee, it seems to me that you are not doing very good customer service since you don't care about the customers experience as expressed by them but only your own.

We think we gave you enough time to respond. Clearly your idea of enough time is differnt to mine.

that said, you can now feel free to close this thread if you like since i've nothing more to add.

I agree with a number of your points. I'm also with you in spirit. I also think your approach is wrong. DW readers aren't customers. We don't pay for this site, we have no entitlements the way a customer would. It is a service offered freely, for the taking or leaving by private individuals.

In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.

Cilla wrote:http://dhammawheel.com/search.php?search_id=active_topicsThat is the link i looked at to find the active thread. It doesn't show you were to find it. It just shows you the page. However i have found it now.

Well you are entitled to your opinion. But if i think of myself as the customer and you as the salesperson or employee, it seems to me that you are not doing very good customer service since you don't care about the customers experience as expressed by them but only your own.

We think we gave you enough time to respond. Clearly your idea of enough time is differnt to mine.

that said, you can now feel free to close this thread if you like since i've nothing more to add.

Hi, Cilla,Like Jhana4, I agree with some of what you have said.But we are not in any way in a customer:business relationship here. We are either guests in another's house (thanks again, David) and should accept traditions of the house along with the hospitality, or members of a club and should accept club rules along with the club benefits. Everything here is provided for our benefit - your benefit - by people working to the best of their ability on a purely voluntary basis. I'm grateful for their efforts, and try to remember to say so from time to time. Perhaps you can stand back from your actions and look at them in this light?

Yes we are not paying customers. That's true. I was just making a point with my analogy about customers. I have been on many forums and i do appreciate the service offered by these sites and generally do my best to abide by the rules. Also as we don't pay, we are beholden to the rules. However, when a site is over moderated it feels like i'm back at boarding school. The best sites i've been on have a minimum of moderation. I try, though sometimes fail, to behave in the right spirit of the site.

I know this site as a buddhist site has its own peculiar things - for the want of a better word - it wants to promote and to inhibit. Even so over-moderation is irritating to adults.

This is a very mildly moderate site as these things go, but if you do not want moderation, I can recommend the usenet hell-holes (assuming they are still functioning).

.

++++++++++++++++This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

There is freedom from birth, freedom from becoming, freedom from making, freedom from conditioning. If there were not this freedom from birth, freedom from becoming, freedom from making, freedom from conditioning, then escape from that which is birth, becoming, making, conditioning, would not be known here. -- Ud 80

Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireas na daoine.People live in one another’s shelter.

Cilla wrote:Yes we are not paying customers. That's true. I was just making a point with my analogy about customers. I have been on many forums and i do appreciate the service offered by these sites

ditto.

However, when a site is over moderated it feels like i'm back at boarding school. The best sites i've been on have a minimum of moderation. I try, though sometimes fail, to behave in the right spirit of the site.

I'm with you on all three of those points too.

Even so over-moderation is irritating to adults.

ditto.

I've also felt at times that the moderators have openly acted in a manner that they would not tolerate from the readers.

tbillings has a point. I've used the usenet Buddhist groups, some email lists and some email forums. Something about the combination of the internet and ironically Buddhists that leads to the most useless of environments without solid moderation. I wouldn't use that as a reason not to look at improving things.

In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.

This article may be of interest to those who can access it: To come to a correct understanding of Buddhism: A case study on spiritualizing technology, religious authority, and the boundaries of orthodoxy and identity in a Buddhist Web forumLaura Buschhttp://nms.sagepub.com/content/13/1/58.abstract

This study examines the Buddhist message forum, E-sangha, to analyze how this forum’s founder and moderators ‘spiritualized the Internet’ (Campbell, 2005a, 2005b) using contemporary narratives of the global Buddhist community, and in doing so, provided these actors with the authority to determine the boundaries of Buddhist orthodoxy and identity and validate their control of the medium through social and technical means. Through a structural and textual analysis of E-sangha’s Web space, this study demonstrates how Web producers and forum moderators use religious community narratives to frame Web environments as sacred community spaces (spaces made suitable for religious activities), which inherently allows those in control of the site the authority to set the boundaries of religious orthodoxy and identity and hence, who can take part in the community.